What did Macron get in exchange for his support for Sisi?

We finished our last
column by asking, “I wonder what Macron, whose democracy is on its deathbed
thanks to the protests of the yellow vests, hopes to gain from Sisi who turned
a democratic protest into a bloodbath?”

On Monday, Macron
arrived in Egypt and met putschist Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who has the blood of at
least three thousand people on his hands and is responsible for human rights
violations against all his people. According to French media, Macron told Sisi
in this meeting that he needs to end human rights violations in Egypt and
stated that this is a fundamental principle for stability in the country in
order to be able to conduct a real fight against terrorism.

From these statements,
you may think that Macron visited Egypt just to utter these words to Sisi in
person, in a friendly environment.

However, these are not
only cheap statements that actually mean nothing but precautions taken against
the reactions that could be sparked by the trade agreements France reached with
a leader like Sisi, who is in complete opposition to all modern European
values. These are the words that make a fool of the entire world.

Macron, who arrived
during these hard times so that he could conclude more than 30 trade agreements
worth hundreds of millions of dollars, is also declaring that he undersold all
the accumulation of democratic values in France. Not only that, Macron topped
his trip with a tweet which was also a great Islamophobic scandal: “Egypt and
France were faced with Islamic terrorism. I reminded President Sisi that our
commitment to security cannot be considered separately from the issue of human
rights. An inclusive society is the best shield from Islamic terrorism.” This
tweet crowned all of his previous gaffes.

As you can see, the
scandal in this statement is not only confined to its Islamophobic dimensions.
No matter how you slice it, this statement is irredeemable. Besides the fact
that it revealed his most ignorant, Islamophobic prejudices, it is also
exemplary in terms of who said these words and to whom.

First of all, how can
Sisi, who normalized the most evil form of terrorism with the coup he
orchestrated be suffering from terrorism? Doesn’t the fact that Macron said
these words to Sisi, if we do actually believe that he well-intentionally meant
all of this, show how detached he is from reality?

A coup is the worst
form of terrorism. In the case of this terrorist act, it becomes possible for
any other form of terrorism to justify its existence or benefit from this coup
and use that advantage for its own strategies. Saying to a coup plotter that he
is on the same side against terrorism and showing solidarity with him only
means that you are declaring that you are equally responsible for this
terrorist act.

Human rights
violations that followed the coup in Egypt are no secret: Tens of thousands of
political detainees, prison conditions resembling dungeons from the Middle Ages
and torture, thousands of people sentenced to death who were not even given the
chance to defend themselves, people who were forced to leave their homes, the
arrest of anyone who could possibly run against Sisi in the elections for no
obvious crime. What kind of advice might Sisi possibly give to Macron that
could make him ignore these human rights violations?

Second of all, the
term “Islamic terrorism” Macron insistently prefers to use doesn’t mean that
there is Islamic terrorism; it just means that he is ignorantly engaging in
religious bigotry against Islam.

Thirdly, he probably
had the chance to utter these words to someone who is actually responsible for
such acts or the perpetrator of terrorism in his country, and most likely that
person didn’t say anything in response. Thus, Macron may suffer from pseudo
self-confidence since he turned his words into a self-fulfilling prophecy in
this way. Because probably he thought for a moment that at the end of the day
the person he addressed is the leader of a Muslim country after all.

No one probably
expected Sisi to object to Macron’s words since he is also investing in terms
like “Islamic terrorism” in order to justify the crimes he committed through
his own coup.

Not only because this
distorted and immoral statement serves his own ends but also because he is
loyally committed to the hierarchy that is already considered natural in his
relationship with Macron.

Of course, no one
expects a person like Sisi, who considers Israel’s arbitrary operations in his
country and against his people, the death of hundreds of innocent citizens as
the “fight against terrorism”, as defending Islam and the expression of
freedom.

This is neither the
first nor the last example of those who become cruel dictators against their
own people and humiliate themselves with their inherently colonial character
and their abasement against the Europeans.

Again, it is possible
to ask whether Macron, who headed to Egypt in an environment where there have
been a series of violence against protestors and right violations against those
staging democratic protests, gave advice to Sisi about human rights or whether
he learned inspirational tactics from him on how to suppress protests and
subdue the opposition.

Anyway, we actually know what Macron gained from his visit to Egypt and what Sisi has given to him in return, but we just ask these questions for the sake of making conversation!

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